


Missing V

by AnnaOnTheMoon



Series: Missing [5]
Category: Star Trek: Picard, Star Trek: The Next Generation
Genre: #PicardNeedsBev, #PicardShow, Gen, Starfleet Intelligence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-04
Updated: 2019-06-04
Packaged: 2020-04-07 18:34:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 760
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19090747
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnnaOnTheMoon/pseuds/AnnaOnTheMoon
Summary: Rene talks to his father about the signal they found and learns a few things about his parents.(Note: This is P/C because it is about their relationship, but Beverly does not appear)





	Missing V

_“Dad, she’s alive.”_ Jean-Luc stared at his son on the monitor. His eyes were bright and he was exited.  Jean-Luc couldn’t help but smile. _Ah, to be a  young officer where everything is new._

“Who?”

_“Mom.  You know, your wife?”_ Jean-Luc scowled at his son.

“Yes, I know who I’m married to, thank you very much Rene. But what do you mean, _she’s alive_?” As much as Jean-Luc tried to keep his hope alive for Beverly to be safe, he had slowly started to lose faith.  He even forgot to check the Starfleet communiqués the other night, figuring his son would let him know if there was any mention of Beverly. Wesley had even given up his own search through the galaxy to find her.  And if _Wesley_ couldn’t find her....he didn’t like to think about what that might mean. He turned his attention back to his son.

_“We found a distress signal-“_

“That’s no indication that you found your mother. It’s no good getting your hopes up, son. It could be _anything._  Or it could be old. For all we know, it was sent, but there’s nothing left.”  Rene scowled at his father.

“ _Dad, would you let me finish?”_ Jean-Luc waved his hand. “ _The distress signal was old, like, one that hasn’t been used in over a decade.  But there was a second message under the distress code...only, it was just a string of numbers.  The weird thing is, the beginning numbers match_ your codes _and the trailing ones are Mom’s!  But...I guess it could be a coincidence.”_ Jean-Luc watched his son’s face fall. “ _No one can figure it out so maybe it’s just  a bunch of gibberish. Sorry, Dad._ ” 

“Can I see the message?  I mean, if it’s addressed to _me...”_ Rene nodded and tapped something on his keyboard and a notification popped up at the bottom of Jean-Luc’s screen.  “Let me put this on my PADD.”  Jean-Luc easily moved the message to his PADD and a huge grin spread across his face when he looked at it.  He looked up at his son on the monitor. “Son....it’s from your mother. It’s a message for me.”

_“How do you know?”_

“Rene, have you ever heard of the KCP code?”

_“Uh...isn’t that what SI uses on covert ops? I haven’t got to that part of my SI training yet. How do_ you _know about it?”_ Jean-Luc chuckled. 

“Son...KCP stands for Keel, Crusher, _Picard_.”  Rene’s eyes went wide.

_“You mean....you, Wesley’s dad and Captain Keel wrote it?”_ Jean-Luc nodded. _“Wow.”_

“We came up with the code when we were Cadets as a way to send each other messages during class. SI found it, and wanted to use it, so we gave them permission...and it even landed Walker a job with them.  Jack and I occasionally worked for SI, but Walker was in the thick of it.” 

_“So, how did Mom know the code?”_ Jean-Luc just gave his son a look. _“No way! Mom worked for intelligence, too?”_

“Not often, and even less after Wesley was born. Not at all after you were. But yes. Your mother was taught our code back when she and Jack were dating.” 

_“Ok, so....how do I break it?”_   Jean-Luc smirked. 

“What’s the fun in telling you?”  Rene glared.

“ _Daaad!”_

“Alright, You see the very first line.”

_“Uhh...no.  It’s just a bunch of numbers and symbols.”_ Jean-Luc chuckled. 

“I see we have to start at the beginning.  When Walker, Jack, and I came up with the code, we needed a way to constantly alter it, but also a way for the recipient to instantly have the key.  So, every number is a letter.  Those letters are broken up by symbols so you know how long a letter is.  The end of the words are another symbol, and the end of a sentence is a third.  The key is at the beginning. “

_“one-four-eight-six-two-dash-two-three-hash?”_

“You got it.”  Jean-Luc watched as Rene tried to figure it out.  Jean-Luc had, sorted the code and the message almost immediately, being used to their form of communication.  In fact, even the key was old, and was one that he and Beverly nearly always used. 

_“Ok, Dad.  Does this mean that fourteen-thousand-eight-hundred-and-sixty-two is W?”_ Jean-Luc nodded.  Rene went back to his PADD and a small bit of paper he was making notes on and after about ten minutes, he looked back up at the screen to his father’s bemused face. “ _Dad.  The message says, ‘Jean-Luc, there’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you.’.”_

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> I was asked in a comment on IV if I would expand this into longer stories, and I thought I'd answer it here. The short version is - I don't know. I have a lot of stories and sometimes I do go back and re-write, edit, or expand them if the mood strikes me. So if I *did* expand them, it probably wouldn't be for quite some time.


End file.
